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If America is a melting pot, then this Belleville classroom is a
cauldron of bubbling ideas, simmering laughter and an overwhelming
yearning to master our country's basic ingredient: the English
language.

Over there is Silvana Kandala, 52, originally from Iraq, reading
the rules for being a U.S. senator and her husband, Imad Yousif,
51, cracking up his classmates with his take on the English
language.

There's Gemma Arroyo, 44, who grew up Mexico, practicing
comparatives while Emiko Ward, 31, originally from Japan and now an
O'Fallon resident, reads about how elected officials are
selected.

"Oat of office?" she asks.

And here's Barb Daley, professor of adult basic education,
patiently correcting and helping with every butchered intransitive
verb and phrase, like Ward's slip.

"Oath," she explains to Ward. "It's like a solemn promise in
court, like on 'Law and Order.'"

The students get the pop culture reference. They nod.

They're all here in this Southwestern Illinois College classroom
to brush up on the finer points of English as part of a noncredit
course. They are professionals and professors, a group of seven
people from six countries wanting to master the language. Its
incongruities cause them to laugh throughout the session.

"Let's work on comparative adjectives," Daley says.

Worksheets are passed.

"We had homework?" jokes Leo Garcia, 30. Originally from
Argentina, he lived in Spain several years and now resides in
O'Fallon.

Daley goes around the room with each student providing the form
of big, bigger, biggest or careful, more careful and most careful.
The rules are, to say the least, a bit confusing.